


The Crusader

by Storm_Clouds_and_Starshine



Series: in the air of the earth we are home [3]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types
Genre: Flashbacks, Flowers, GARDENS!!, Gen, I don't know how to tag this, Names of Choice, Self-Hatred, but only a tiny bit near the end!!, fighting against your own species
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25076434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storm_Clouds_and_Starshine/pseuds/Storm_Clouds_and_Starshine
Summary: How the Royal Knight of roses and golden ribbons came to be.
Series: in the air of the earth we are home [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694707
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The Crusader

**Author's Note:**

> IIIIIITS CRUSADERMON TIME
> 
> did i make a whole thing to justify her going by a name that's different than the name of her species? yes. yes i did.
> 
> all you need to know about LordKnightmon is that he's bad and we don't like him. also pink roses are bad because those are his favorites. 
> 
> also this fic is like 75% flashback oops

Snip, snip, snip. Prune a few stems here, check the blossoms there, make sure the roses have enough water and sun. The garden was still somewhat new, but it was growing well. Crusadermon paused a moment, wiped off any sweat from her brow, and regretted that her armor covered so much of her body, because working in the sun in full armor wasn’t the smartest decision. Still, caring for the rather large gardens that had been planted around and in the castle was necessary, and the flowers and greenery did look nice. 

  
  


She did remember planting the buds fondly, though. She had had help from Mugendramon - a friend of hers, someone who had been the one to introduce her to the idea of gardening in the first place. The gardens has started small, just a rose bush or two in front of the front gates of the castle. They had grown quickly, though, more flowers and plants of various kinds added in different places and the care needed becoming greater.

  
  


“Hey, do you know if we need to water the zinnias?” Mugendramon asked, from a short distance away. Crusadermon felt bad for the machine dragon - a large staw hat was on their head, but a large part of their metallic body still was in full force of the sun, and she would have asked them if they wanted to take a break if she hadn’t know that they refused to rest until all of the gardening was done. Still, she kept a careful eye out. No need to let a friend get heatstroke.

  
  


“I’m sure that they’ve been watered,” Crusadermon answered, “but I’ll check again just to be sure.”

  
  


As she went about watering and pruning and doing general upkeep on the floristry, she let her thoughts wander some. Recalled some of older times, remembering how she got to here. Crusadermon had wandered to a patch of marigolds, now, and she paused to think of the younger, nostalgic memories tied to the flowers she saw.

  
  


_ She had hatched in a field of flowers, years and years ago. Bright, brilliantly colored flowers, dark crimson roses and bright burning marigolds. She hatched in a field of flowers, a Kuramon wandering about, all of the plant stems too tall for her to see over. Even in her younger age, even as her newborn self she was surrounded by flowers, roses and marigolds and brilliant colored petals. Hopping around, floating an inch above the ground, in fields of flowers and flowers, marigolds and marigolds and marigolds. The fields of roses and marigolds and lilacs was a beautiful, and expansive, place to be born in, and a place that provided shelter and endless areas to hide under flower stems and leaves and petals. _

  
  


Crusadermon watered the marigolds, checked to see if there were any insects eating on the leaves or stems. None there. To the next patch, then.

  
  


Oh, zinnias. Zinnias were very nice. Orange petals, very nice. Water for them, some fertilizer, and off to the next plant.

  
  


She paused, staring at the patch of mint. It wasn’t that there wasn’t supposed to be mint in the garden. Quite the opposite really, there were several kinds of herbs planted in the gardens for making tea. Mint was a favorite of Dukemon, as it happened. But. Mint wasn’t supposed to be  _ here _ , among the flowers. Mint was supposed to be with the other herbs, and honestly, Crusadermon would have tried to uproot the plants and try to corral them back to where they were  _ supposed _ to be.

  
  


_ Would have _ . Because. . . it was sentimental, and silly, but she almost empathized with the plants. Growing where they weren’t necessarily wanted, just trying to live.

  
  


_ Impmon scampered away, away from the pack of Gazimon that were chasing her. Only a week since having evolved from Pagumon and already she had to run and fight. The field of flowers had not been as kind as she had thought, and now she was in the plains, running with her stolen scraps of rood held to her chest. She did not want to die here.  _

  
  


_ “Get back here!” one of the Gazimon howled, swinging an arm at her. _

  
  


_ Impmon ducked, legs pumping and running and running. Her tail was too short to do anything but serve as a balance, her arms too short to do anything but grip her stolen goods, but she ran anyways. _

  
  


No, no, no.  _ Focus on the plants . _ Crusadermon reminded herself. This was a time to be working on gardening, not reminiscing. The mint would need to be moved, if not killed. If Crusadermon left the mint where it was it’d just grow and choke out every other plant in the garden, and she was  _ not _ having that. To work, then.

  
  


Crusadermon had to dig up the mint by hand. Mostly because she hadn’t been anticipating having to dig up an entire swath of plant, only having thought of watering and removing any bugs. Idly she thought that the whole process might have gone faster if she were still a BlackTailmon, with the claws being able to dig into the dirt easier than her armored fingers could. Ah, well. Best to just get rid of as much as she could.

  
  


By the time she had finished, the sun was at its peak and Crusadermon retreated to one of the more shaded areas of the gardens, where the shadows fell onto the plants from a higher point of the castle. She stared at the wall across from her, the other half of the courtyard that she had made her way into. The bricks were still somewhat cracked. The mint was gone, though, a decent chunk of it, all reduced to data that slowly floated up into the sky, up and up and up, so many particles of data. . . 

  
  


_ The data had floated up like that when he had crushed the flowers under his feet, carelessly. Floating up and up, so many flowers crushed as the LordKnightmon walked in her gardens, careless. He had several scrapes and dents in his armor, but Knightmon knew that the injuries he had were not as severe at the ones that the Royal Knights possessed. Alphamon had been knocked down, Magnamon’s armor was in pieces and he lay slumped on the hard stone tile some feet away, and Knightmon had no idea where UlforceV-dramon or Examon were.  _

  
  


_ “So you wish to oppose me?” LordKnightmon said, arrogance thick in his voice. “It would be a shame. You have so much potential. Why not join me instead? You, too, could be a LordKnightmon. You could have power . You could be free to do as you wish.” With each word, the pink-armored virus digimon drew closer to where Knightmon stood. _

  
  


_ She raised her sword. “I will not allow you to proceed any further.” She stated, her voice too calm for her racing, terrified heart. She had worked for and with the Royal Knights a year after her evolution to BlackTailmon - three hundred years of working for them, three hundred years of loyalty, was not going to be broken in a single moment. LordKnightmon could talk all he wanted. He was a murderer, killing at random, killing whomever he pleased and going on rampages all in the name of ‘freedom’. She would _ not _ follow him. _

  
  


_ “Oh?” his voice took a dangerous edge to it. “Then so be it.” Faster than Knightmon could react to, he rushed forwards and one of his metallic ribbons wrapped around her chest, tighter and tighter until Knightmon was sure that the armor would crack, before hurling her into the walls of the courtyard.  _

  
  


_ All of the air in her lungs escaped in a single breath upon impact. This time her armor _ did _ break, and she was halfway sure that some of her ribs did as well. Spots danced in her vision, and she wheezed as she fell back down to the ground from the crater in the bricks. _

  
  


_ LordKnightmon did not let her be. Once more the golden metallic ribbons, attached to pink shining armor grasped her, squeezing around her chest and her arms and her legs. Knightmon screamed  and gasped and choked through a wave of  _ pain _ and it hurt so bad-  _

  
  


_ The armor. The armor was in pieces and if she could just get it off she could be free of the many different sharp shards digging into her skin. Get rid of the armor. _

  
  


_ LordKnightmon dropped her and Knightmon gasped, wheezing further still. The armor had fallen, fragmented pieces falling onto the stone courtyards among the pink and orange and dark crimson roses. She needed. . . needed to re-form her armor. She needed that armor. Her body ached and she was sure that at least one of her ribs were broken but she needed the armor back or  _ all  _ of her ribs would be broken, and with two of the Royal Knights gone Knightmon _ needed _ to protect the castle. _

  
  


_ She wheezed, and wheezed, and tried and tried and tried because she needed to re-form that armor now . LordKnightmon walked closer to her, his golden metallic ribbons retracted close to his sides and Knightmon knew that he would kill her if he could get to her. She needed the re-form her armor. _

  
  


_ Something in the universe whispered unintelligible words, and she breathed, and there was light. Evolution, a beautiful light and it brought growth and healing and an end to pain. Evolution brought the armor she needed. _

  
  


_ She left the half-daze of one still evolving when LordKnightmon began to laugh. He laughed and laughed and laughed and she did not know  why until she looked. _

  
  


_ Armor, dark crimson-red armor with golden metal ribbons that stood out as bright accents, a more slender body and power than she had had before. No. This - this was not right. This was not  _ right _.  No. she couldn’t be this. She had sworn  _ not _ to be this- _

  
  


_ Horror and guilt and revulsion rose in her gut, and she did not know what to do. _

  
  


_ Across from her, several feet away still, LordKnightmon laughed. “Oh, how ironic.” He finally said when he had at last pulled himself somewhat together. “You claim to refuse to let me win, when now you have  _ become _ me. Your Royal Knights,” and here he sneered and said the words in a way that made them sound like the very dredges of his own soul, rotted and twisted and horrible things, “would be horrified of you.” _

  
  


_ She did not argue. She was aware, far too aware, that these last words were true. She did not stand. She did not move. She - the newly evolved LordKnightmon and how she  hated that name applied to herself - simply remained, stationary in the place she had fallen to, on her knees and hunched over.  _

  
  


_ Another laugh from LordKnightmon, filled with malic and some ironic tinge that sent the tone into mania and hysteria. “This is so  _ entertaining _. ” He said to himself. “Still, if you shall not join me, then I shall have you be dealt with as all opposition is.” The pink-armored knight-virus launched himself forwards, metallic golden ribbons reaching and pile-bunker aimed to tear apart and pierce through the core of the crimson-armored knight, who sat motionless as she tried to piece together any last shreds of sense in her new state. _

  
  


_ A blue and gold blur streaked through the courtyard, the winds following it sending the various plants into a sudden dance. The blur stopped in front of  LordKnightmon and looking up, she saw that it was UlforceV-dramon. _

  
  


_ How fitting. The one who had hired her in the first place, who had become some kind of older sibling to her, was the first one to witness what terrible thing she had become. They must hate her. _

  
  


_ “LordKnightmon.” They said in a low, dangerous tone, growling and hackles raised.  _

  
  


_ “Which one?” The LordKnightmon in pink asked, in an innocent tone. “There are two LordKnightmon here, are there not? How shall either of us know whomst it is that you are addressing-” _

  
  


“Don’t give me that _!” UlforceV-dramon snarled. “You know  _ damn well _ who I’m talking to, and it’s  _ you _ in the pink and gold.” They stalked forwards, trembling with rage. “Now, tell me. What. Did. You. Do?” _

  
  


_ The LordKnightmon before them laughed and laughed. “All I did was. . . spar with her, a small amount. I threw her into a wall. Her armor broke. She evolved into that form all on her own.” _

  
  


_ UlforceV-dramon snarled again, and  ~~ LordKnightmon ~~ shrank back. They were angry. They were very, very angry, and she didn’t know if they would direct their anger at her. They might. She would deserve it, for evolving into this form. She would deserve it. _

  
  


_ UlforceV-dramon fought the LordKnightmon. He was off-balance, still somewhat shocked at the form  ~~ LordKnightmon ~~ had evolved into. She did not care. LordKnightmon, he who had killed and killed and ruined and destroyed, was defeated, captured, placed somewhere in a prison where he could not get free. _

  
  


_ After the other Royal Knights had been seen to and patched up, they went somewhere, likely to talk.  ~~ LordKnightmon ~~ did not move. She hated it, but she still wanted to  live even though her death had been guaranteed with this cursed form she had taken on. _

  
  


_ UlforceV-dramon paused, looking at her before walking with the other Knights towards wherever it was that they were going. The other Knights, Alphamon and Magnamon and Examon, crouched over part of the courtyards, all stopped to look and see what their youngest sibling was up to. “Uhhm - LordKnightmon -” she flinched, and UlforceV-dramon backpedaled in their speech. “Knightmon - you were Knightmon, right?” Their tone was soft. It was too soft. She didn’t deserve to be talked to in a voice that was filled with that much concern.  _

  
  


_ She nodded, mutely. She needed to - she needed to apologize. She needed to apologize. “I - sir, I-” _

  
  


_ UlforceV-dramon looked at her, eyes softening. “You don’t need to call me ‘sir’, you know. We’re friends, right?” _

  
  


_ That was true. They  _ were _ friends. No longer, though, because she had evolved and her form was a horrible one, and she was sorry sorry sorry she was so, so sorry and she didn’t know what to do- _

  
  


_ She was crying, and UlforceV-dramon was hugging her, gently, and she sobbed into their shoulder as apology after apology spilled from her lips. Eventually, eventually, UlforceV-dramon settled for picking her up, and carrying her. She didn’t pay attention to where they went. No doubt somewhere where she would be locked away. _

  
  


_ To her surprise, however, she was sat down in a chair, at a large, grand table. She made some odd whine of a noise, too confused with why she had been set somewhere so proper and neat and clean, surrounded by all of the Royal Knights and their founder, to care about whether or not the noise was a ‘proper’ one or not. _

  
  


_ “Shhh, it’s okay, little one.” A Slayerdramon sat to her left, silver armor dented and worn but still good, still being of use even after many years. “We’re not going to hurt you.” _

  
  


_~~ LordKnightmon ~~ looked upwards for a brief few seconds. “You should.” She said voice barely above a whisper. “You know what the other one was like. Who knows what I could do? Better to kill me than risk me being just as bad as  _ him _. ” She spat out the last word, though her voice remained quiet, and her head returned to staring at her lap, hands gripping each other nervously. _

  
  


_ “The actions of one does not necessitate the punishment on another who happens to be similar.” Slayerdramon said, lifting  ~~ LordKnightmon’s ~~ face up with a hand under the crimson-armored knight’s chin. “Why so hard on yourself after only a few hours at most?” _

  
  


_ She waited as  LordKnightmon organized her thoughts. “Because. . . because I broke my word.” She said at last. “I swore to never be like him. And now I am. Is that not reason enough?” _

  
  


_ “You’re like him in  species _ _, not in personality.” Magnamon pointed out, a chair or two away. “Just because you’re a LordKnightmon doesn’t mean you’re_ LordKnightmon _ , yeah?” _

  
  


_ Oh.  _

  
  


_ “Oh.” She said. Suddenly she was dizzy, because - had she worried so much for nothing? Had she been so sure? But, what if - no. no, she would trust them. She would trust the Royal Knights on this. She had to.  But what if \- no. She would trust them. She had to.  _

  
  


_ “I still do not want to be mistaken for him.” She admitted, quietly still, head dropping back down to gaze at her lap. “I do not want to use his name.” _

  
  


_ “You do not have to.” Examon reasoned, their voice rumbling in their chest, speaking for the first time since they had all gathered there. “You are allowed to have a different name.” _

  
  


_ The other Knights and their founder, Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode, and their mother, Slayerdramon, all quickly voiced agreement. _

  
  


_ “If. . . if I am to have a different name,” she wondered aloud, though still quiet - she wouldn’t dare to be loud - “what would it be?” _

  
  


_ The Knights went quiet. She did not need to see their faces to know that they were likely looking at one another, silently, all waiting for some decision to be made. Finally, a sound of shuffling, and a change in the air. Someone had made a decision. _

  
  


_ “How about Crusadermon?” Came the suggestion, and it came from UlforceV-dramon. _

  
  


_ She looked up at him, head jerking up, and her shock must have been written all over her face and pose and armor.  _

  
  


_ “Because - well, you’re kind of going on your own sort of personal crusade, right? Against the stuff that LordKnightmon did, and against anyone thinking that you’re gonna be like him. You don’t wanna be him, and you want to be your own person, so you’d need to fight against that, so. . . you know, why not take that fight and make it of your own free will and not just because everyone makes you, yeah?” UlforceV-dramon continued, in their half-ramble style of speech that was familiar and so often came with when they had a sudden idea. _

  
  


_ “Crusadermon . . .” She tested the name on her lips. It was. . . nice. “I like it.” She said, looking at the other knights directly. “That’s my name now. Call me Crusadermon.” _

  
  


_ UlforceV-dramon grinned, and Alphamon and Magnamon and Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode all relaxed some, and Slayerdramon laughed a bit, and even Examon seemed happier at her decision and small bit of regained confidence and sense of self. _

  
  


_ “Well, Crusadermon,” Imperialdramon: Paladin mode began, “we’re glad to have helped. And we’re glad to have you here. Welcome to the Royal Knights.” _

  
  


“Crusadermon-kun?” Mugendramon’s voice snapped the crimson-armored knight out of her memories.

  
  


“Hmm?”

  
  


“It’s getting rather late.” The machine dragon mentioned, gesturing vaguely to the darkening sky. “Shall we finish work on the gardens tomorrow? There isn’t much left, but i would rather not overwork either of ourselves.”

  
  


“Yes, that should be fine, thank you.” Crusadermon agreed, standing and stretching her stiff joints. “Sorry for getting so caught up in my memories like that.”

  
  


“It’s fine.” Mugendramon waved a hand at her. “I know that these gardens hold many memories for you and the rest of the Royal Knights - they’ve been here since the castle was built, right?”

  
  


“Indeed they have - though not nearly as expansive as they are now that I’ve been caring for them, especially with your help!” The two shared a laugh. “Come on then.” Crusadermon continued. “Back inside the castle to rest. We can finish tomorrow.”

  
  


She took a single crimson rose with her, and, together with Mugendramon, walked back towards the interior of the castle. Tomorrow would be another day, and tomorrow would be another day. She had lived and done her best to avoid becoming the evils around her - now was time for sleep, and rose petals all around.

**Author's Note:**

> howdy. i still am not sure of how to tag this so if you find anything you think i should tag by the time you've gotten here, let me know!
> 
> anyways uh. i hope you enjoyed? i'm not in as ramble-y of a mood today for some reason. huh


End file.
